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What if Public Schools Were Christian?

Yesterday I posted on how Christian parents are required to give their kids a Christian education. I was addressing the current situation where God has been jettisoned from public education.

But what would happen if government schools were Christian? What if we lived in a community where the curriculum was based on Scripture, the teachers were Christian, subjects were connected to God, and holiness in conduct was as important as a test score? What if there were chapel services and every class began with prayer? Would this change things? The answer is yes, but it still would not justify government schools as they are now. There are a couple of points to remember.

Christian parents have the right to delegate the education of their children, assuming that education is Christian. Christian parents do not have to teach everything. Even those of us who home school do not teach everything. We use videos, co-ops, online classes, etc. Christian parents are overseers of the education of their children. That is why I am not opposed to Christian schools. If the local community school was godly then a Christian parent could send their child there and not violate Scripture. They would be giving their child a Christian education.

But the government does not have the right to force the parents in their community to send their child to the school or to tax parents to support that local school. Why? God did not give the government oversight of a child’s education. The parents in Scripture are given primary oversight of a child’s education. You can have a community school but support of the school and participation by the parent must be free, not coerced. Parents should be able to opt-out without a penalty.

This is also an extension of Christian freedom and charity. Imagine a community is mostly Christian and the schools are run by Christians, but there are Muslims in the community. Should the Muslims be forced to attend or pay for the local Christian school? The answer is no. As a Christian, if you lived in a Muslim community would you want to be forced to attend their schools or to pay for their schools?

If the community was mainly Christian and they wanted a community school that was also Christian citizens could voluntarily put their money towards that endeavor. In this way, it is in one sense governmental because it is the local, community school and is viewed as such by the citizens. But in another sense it is private because funding comes not from taxes and the citizens are not forced to participate. In essence you have a private school that is voluntarily supported by the majority of the citizens.

Of course, the chances of this occurring in our present situation are non-existent. Therefore the best options for Christians are homeschooling or private Christian schools.

The two key points are: the government should not force participation in its schools nor tax its citizens to support those schools and parents have oversight of a child’s education, not the government.